Pete Wedderburn

Pete Wedderburn qualified as a vet twenty-five years ago, and now spends half his working life writing newspaper columns. He lives in Ireland with his wife, two daughters and a menagerie of dogs, cats, poultry and other furry and feathered companions. Pete answers readers' queries about their pets' health in his video Q&A – he is also on Twitter as @petethevet and has a Facebook Fan Page.

Dogs with itchy ears

Ear disease is very common in dogs, especially in the warm summer months. Titan – a Rottweiler – started with some mild head shaking in the morning, but soon he was pawing both ears repeatedly, rubbing his head along the ground, and obviously suffering from discomfort in both ears.

Titan the Rottweiler

When I examined him, there was a strong, yeasty smell around his head, and it was clear that he had a serious problem. Both ears were painful to touch, and it was impossible to get a good look inside them with my otoscope.

Ear disease is often simply an extension of generalised skin disease. After all, the ears are just a modification of skin, with the ear flap protruding outwards and the ear canal going inwards. The complicated design of dog ears, with folds, crevices and narrow tubes, means that they contain pockets of moist, warm air which are prone to developing bacterial and yeast infections.

Treatment of one-off instances of mild itchy ears can be simple. A general treatment with an antibiotic, soothing ear ointment, applied once or twice daily for a week, is often enough to resolve the problem.

Recurrent or serious ear disease can be much more difficult to cure. Titan was an example of a dog with sore ears that were so uncomfortable that a detailed, systematic approach to his diagnosis and treatment was needed from the start.

The first step was to take a swab from each ear, to be cultured in the laboratory. There was a risk that he might have an infection with a particular type of bacteria that would need specialised antibiotics, and it was important to clarify this at the beginning, before any treatment was given. The results showed that he had common bacteria in both ears, which were very likely to respond to treatment with standard ear ointments.

As a follow-up, after ten days of treatment with an ointment, I had another look at him. By now, Titan’s ears were much less painful, and I was able to examine each of them in more detail. I could now see that his left ear was looking very healthy, but his right ear was in trouble. He had cauliflower-like warty growths around the opening to his ear, preventing normal air circulation in and out. I prescribed more treatment, with anti-inflammatory tablets as well as antibiotics, but I already knew that he’d probably need surgery to cure the ear.

Two weeks later, he was booked in for an operation to remove the warts. The operation was very successful, and for a while, Titan seemed to be cured. When he began itching again a few months later, it was obvious that there was another underlying problem. A further work-up showed that he had generalised allergic skin disease, and since his ears were the most sensitive part of his skin, they were showing up as the first sign of the problem.

Titan was started on to long term anti-allergy treatment using anti-inflammatory tablets, and this time, the cure has been almost permanent. He still has occasional itchy ears, but he only needs treatment with ointment once a year or so.

Titan is an intelligent dog, and it’s as well that he only needs sporadic treatment directly into his ear. He recognises the tube of ear ointment, and he does his best to avoid having it put into his ears. It isn’t easy to control ten stone of wriggling Rottweiler –even when as good-natured as Titan.